The recipe of pasta salad with sardines

Clean the sardines. Remove their scales and innards and then fillet them. Wash them under cold running water.

Marinate the sardines. Mix the orange and lemon juice. Grease the bottom of a large stainless steel pan with a tablespoon of olive oil.
Put some sardines in the pan, well detached and on their back.
Sprinkle the sardines with the orange-and-lemon mixture, a bit of chives and parsley. Season to taste with salt.
Continue until all the ingredients are used up (but put apart some chives). Cover the pan.
Let the sardines marinate for about 40 to 45 minutes.

Cook the pasta. At this point cook the pasta al dente stage according to the instructions on the package or our instructions.
Meanwhile remove the cover and cook the sardines with all their marinating juice and aromatic herbs in the pan over high heat. You need few time up to 10 minutes. Don't stir to keep the sardine fillets whole. Move only a bit with a wooden spoon with delicacy.

The last step. Drain the pasta and run under cold water in order to stop cooking, drain again. Transfer the pasta into a bowl, add the remaining olive oil and chives and stir accurately.
At this point spoon some tablespoons of pasta into another bowl, transfer some sardine fillets on the pasta with a skimming ladle. Continue until all the ingredients are used up. Look at the photo for more details.
Let all the ingredients flavor at room temperature for an hour before serving. Stir at the last minute.
Your dish is ready!

Note

• - In the south of Italy people are used to flavor fish with orange and/or lemon juice. The fish is tastier.
• - You can also serve this pasta warm.
• - Don't make this pasta salad the day before. It can be not too digestible.
• - Use fresh chives for the best result.
• - Generally we use spelt pasta as you can see in the photo but you can use the pasta you prefer.
• - It's a perfect one-plate meal, ideal for summer. Some ideas for summer dinner party or Sunday lunch around this dish? Read more on our blog ...
• - What are the most important rules to make a tasty pasta salad? Read more ...

Healthy eating

• - Pasta salad is a dish rich in ingredients and so it is necessary to calculate the right amount of everything we use not to exceed calories, fat and sugars.
• - Daily menu. Note the amount of calories and protein and the combination of its ingredients. It can be only one-plate meal. Complete your meal with fresh seasonal vegetable if you are still hungry and fruit.
  We remember pasta should be eaten preferably at lunch and the calories eaten at lunch should be 500 - 700 (30 - 35% of energy needs for an adult if his daily needs are about 2000 calories and he correctly divides his calories into 5 micro-meals).
  Here are the doses per head: 70 g (2 1/2oz) pasta, 150 g (5 1/4oz) sardines, half a little orange, some drops of lemon juice, aromatic herbs and one tablespoon olive oil.
• - Choose vegetarian dishes for your dinner to control the daily amount of protein.
• - Special occasion menu. Don't worry about fat, calories, sugars ... it happens rarely, doesn't it?
• - As you can see it's a tomato-free recipe, ideal for people intolerant or alergic to tomatoes.
• - If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 kCal per 100 ml.
• - If you want to know more about Italian pasta and its nutrition value read this page.
• - We remember you our original home recipes can be made without salt; there is a combination of flavours that substitutes salt. Other salt-free recipes ...

What's the right wine?
Our suggestion is: Alghero Rosato (a rosè wine of Sardinia - Italy)